Opinions on new system

[Guest Soulman]

The time has finally come to upgrade my system to something more suitable. I'm pretty keen to run Vista with FS9 and the PMDG products, with ActiveSky and VistaOz etc. I came across the following system and would like some opinions on it.Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 (3.0Ghz/4MB/1333FSB/Dual Core)Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3P P35, ATX, FSB1333, 2xPCIEx16, SATA2, RAID, 1394, GbLAN, DualBIOS+Patriot 2GB Kit (2x1GB) PC2-9600, Extreme Performance, 5-5-5-12, EPPXFX Geforce 8800GTS XXX Edition, 320MB, 580/1800mhz, Dual DVI, TV OUT2 x Western Digital WD3200AAKS 320gb 7200rpm 16mb SATAII/300, NCQ in RAID 0Lite-On LH-20A1P 20x DVD BurnerRazer DeathAdder Infrared High Precision Gaming Mouse, Everglide T-1000 Pro Gaming Keyboard, TP-Link 108M Wireless PCI Adaptor, Onboard 8-Channel High Definition Audio, Gigabit LAN, Audio360 Closed Ear Stereo Headset, 22" Silver Widescreen LCD, 1680x1050, DVI, HDCP Support, NZXT HUSH Black ATX Case with Blue LED, OCZ 600W StealthXStream PSU, OCZ Vendetta CPU Cooler, Windows Vista Home Premium 32-Bit.All up around $2500 Aussie dollars. My main concern regards the motherboard - obviously a computer will only run as fast as it's slowest component. Should I fork out the extra $$ and upgrade to a better board? And if so, what board would you suggest?Any other suggestions before I part with my cash?Thanks in advance,Jeremy.

[Guest wayupthere]

Hello Jeremy,Looks good overall, just a few things.. Your motherboard, if you are planning to go all out now maybe shop for a X38 chipset one, instead of the P35, and perhaps look for DDR3 instead of DDR2.As to your GPU, Maybe hold on for that, since DX10.1 cards are due soon, current DX10.0 cards wont be able to take full advantage of all the DX10.1 content.... New card are able to do both .0 and .1As to RAID, if you KNOW what your doing go right ahead, if you don't know what RAID is or how you have to troubleshoot when problems occur, I'd would shy away from that and just go with a single fast 10k drive.Personally, i'd stay away from RAID, since speedwise its not worth it vs. problems that may or may not occur... Opt for a single 10k, is my advice.PS, going with Vista, i'd put another 1GB of ram in it, make it 3GB for Vista..And as far as your RAM, are you going to overclock? if not, than you wont need high priced PC-9600 1200MHz, regular PC-6400 800MHz RAM would do just fine, and lower your cost.Regards,

[Guest Soulman]

Thanks for the reply Davis.By the sounds of it - 3Gb RAM is the sweet spot for Vista?With regards to the HD - would a 150gig Raptor suffice? I have an external HD to keep all of my other files on, in addition to a laptop.Thanks again,Jeremy.

[Guest wayupthere]

Hey Jeremy,Yeah, according you most users 3GB is, that is of course when running a 32bit version.As to HD, well your not really limited to JUST Raptors you also have a choice between Hitatchi,Seagate and Quantum (just pay attention to the interface that each drive uses)... But yeah a 150 Raptor will do a good job.Look around a bit, you'll fine some good deals online.Regards,